Veh. Code, § 6701 · Article 1. Exemption of Nonresidents
Veh. Code, § 6701
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Any nonresident owner of a vehicle registered in a foreign state who is a member or spouse of a member of the armed forces of the United States on active duty within this state, and any resident owner of a vehicle registered in a foreign state who is a member or spouse of a member of the armed forces of the United States returning from active duty in a foreign state, may operate the vehicle in this state without securing California registration after satisfying all of the following requirements:
(1) The license plates displayed on the vehicle are valid plates issued by a foreign jurisdiction.
(2) The vehicle registration and license plates are issued to the military person or spouse of the military person.
(3) The vehicle registration and license plates were issued by the foreign jurisdiction where the military person was last regularly assigned and stationed for duty by military orders or a jurisdiction claimed by the nonresident military person as the permanent state of residence.
(4) If the vehicle is a motor vehicle, the owner or driver has in force one of the forms of financial responsibility specified in Section 16021.
(b) For purposes of paragraph (3) of subdivision (a), military orders do not include military orders for leave, for temporary duty, or for any other assignment of any nature requiring the military person’s presence outside the foreign jurisdiction where the owner was regularly assigned and stationed for duty.
(c) This section applies to all vehicles owned by the military person or spouse except any commercial vehicle used in any business manner wherein the military person or spouse receives compensation.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 1999, Ch. 100, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2000.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=6701.
- Text hash
- sha256 59b13d2f8394340c4faf24b17a581c463b68ad7ee0487f7d3c62a51feb3503df
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
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Vehicle Code
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.